Friday Ephemera

When your meticulously planned attempt at bank robbery is cut short. // Close enough. // Under London. // When men lactate. // LSD ‘microdosing’ is apparently a thing now. // Planet X is cloaked. // Plus one. // Pedal cars of yore. // Showbiz. // Hombre. // Birth of the camera phone. // Feel my babies. // Place your bets. // On Britain’s collective tea-making menace. // Animated bodies. // Paper puppets. // 1970s Spider-Man. // Cityscapes of note. // Tornado. // Storm. // Squirrel combing. // “A flight in China was delayed for five hours after an elderly passenger threw coins into the aircraft’s engine for good luck.” // And finally, rather pleasingly, “When a security developer was contacted by an IRS phone scammer, he decided to do more than simply ignore their call.”

Comments

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

As contemporary "art" has been frequently discussed here, it appears the "artists" may soon be redundant because of Artificial Intelligence painters.

Judging by the examples at the link, I think the AI comes off as more original and aesthetically pleasing, with the added benefit of no tedious thesis about the pieces, and no odd looking humans hawking their "works".

[Jen]

“When a security developer was contacted by an IRS phone scammer, he decided to do more than simply ignore their call.”

Total hero.

[David]

Total hero.

Judging by the number of views, he does seem to have struck a chord with the public.

[Spiny Norman]

Testity-test-test

(New hd, fresh Windows install - it's been a fun day)

[David]

How to cook noodles.

[David]

Cool kid communism.

[MC]

Re "Place your bets" I would like to vote for 'all of them'. Pack the whole shoddy enterprise up, burn the evidence then piss off and never bother us again.

[David]

Pack the whole shoddy enterprise up, burn the evidence then piss off and never bother us again.

Not a fan, then?

[Joan]

This.

[David]

Total hero.

He also ruins the day of tech support scammers.

The reactions of the scammers are interesting. They often sound indignant, as if the belated pushback were in no way deserved. As if their own behaviour were perfectly respectable.

[MC]

Not a fan, then?

Really not. Never in human history has so much guff been generated from so few ideas.

[MC]

The LSD microdosing story was very interesting. I used to recreationally take LSD quite a lot, about 10-15 years ago. I never found myself hallucinating dragons or similar, although sometimes things that were really there behaved rather strangely. And occasionally I'd lose the ability to form words, so lost the interior monologue, which is a bit unnerving...

The most interest effect was 'seeing' what was there very intensely. Trees seemed to pulse with life, sometimes I felt I could count every leaf. Music was amazing, I could hear a world of sound in a single beat.

What I felt seems quite similar to the intensity and connectedness Burke feels.

I'm glad people are experimenting with LSD; I believe it and ecstasy have a lot of positive potential. I am certainly very glad that I have tried both.

[David]

I used to recreationally take LSD quite a lot, about 10-15 years ago.

Suddenly my readership is starting to make sense.

[Sam]

“A flight in China was delayed for five hours after an elderly passenger threw coins into the aircraft’s engine for good luck.”

Did it work?

I'll get my coat.

[jabrwok]

Did it work?

Well, the plane didn't crash, so I'd say yes.

[George]

I only took LSD once and it was well over 30 years ago but what MC says about being able to count every leaf on every tree is my strongest memory of the experience.

[David]

what MC says about being able to count every leaf on every tree is my strongest memory of the experience.

I once used it in a studio. Everything sounded shiny, spatious and endlessly fascinating, which isn’t necessarily a good way to get anything done. And operating recording equipment became hilariously difficult.

[George]

Here I am, a respectable middle-aged man sitting in an airport departure lounge waiting to get home to my family after the best part of a week of important meetings and it's all your fault that I find myself wondering where I might be able to score a tab of acid...

[George]

I know, no refunds, credit note only...

[David]

I know, no refunds, credit note only...

I’m glad you’re taking my teachings to heart.

[George]

Ever get around to counting the leaves on that bodhi tree, Master?

[David]

Student hygiene. And comradeship.

[David]

It’s hard to argue with Glenn Reynolds’ comment here.

[Darleen]

Think she has a chance?

[David]

Think she has a chance?

Heh. I believe that’s what’s called a generation gap.

[Dom]

So men can lactate. Now I'm wondering if women can get boners.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

More first world problems, Let's Get Ready To Rummmmmmmmmble ! Report: Teenager Killed in Transgender Gang Feud

“BTWI,[Black Transwomen, Inc.] our brother organization Black Transmen, Inc, the BTMI Atlanta Chapter, the Black Trans International Pageantry System, and Black Trans Advocacy joins your family and all who loved you in expressing our condolences...

That is not intersectionalism, that is a four interstate merge cloverleaf.

Now I'm wondering if women can get boners.

Technically, yes, as the clitoris is erectile tissue that is embryonically homologous to the glans penis as they both arise are derived from the same fetal tissue.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The question is, was it consensual ?

This is the third time Ransier has been caught and suspect of deviant acts with a vegetable. In 2014, police were called to a local baseball field, where Ransier was clothed in only women’s stockings, engaging in a sex act with a vegetable, the Statesman reports. In 2012, Raniser was found naked and admitted to engaging in a sex act with a squash.

[David]

I can honestly say I didn’t expect the words transgender gang feud to crop up today.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I can honestly say I didn’t expect the words transgender gang feud to crop up today.

As surprising as that was, personally speaking, I was a bit more taken aback by the event concerning the squash.

[David]

I was a bit more taken aback by the event concerning the squash.

Oh I dunno. Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few niche appetites.

[Hal]

I can honestly say I didn’t expect the words transgender gang feud to crop up today.

That is indeed a horrible headline, rather begging actual correlation. Basic Googlemancy does turn up a minor improvement, but one is still left hearing an editor going Oooh!! Oooh!!! How many buzzwords can we throw into this before reality catches us?!?!?!

---I'm rather reminded of the occurrences where some loony in his fifties shoots one coworker, the coworker survives and the loony gets arrested, the loony hasn't touched a firearm in decades, and back when the loony was eighteen, the loony joined the military. Resulting headline; Ex-Marine Workplace Massacre!!!!!

[Hal]

Hmph.

There.

[Hal]

Chorus: Slash before eye between less than and greater.

[David]

[ Taps enormous sign above bar. ]

Preview is your friend.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few niche appetites.

OK, you beat me with the cow slurry, but I can say I learned something about cow farming today, however, regarding Mr. Ransier.

Further investigation revealed more disturbing details in Ransier’s car, where police found children’s clothing, Barbie dolls, duct tape, rope, Viagra and a cooler filled with frozen cucumbers, according to the Statesman.

Right, what's all this then ?

Speaking of cars, for fellow gearheads, Live stream of Goodwood.

[Rafi]

OK, you beat me with the cow slurry,

Also unexpected.

[WTP]

BTWI,[Black Transwomen, Inc.] our brother organization Black Transmen, Inc

Our "brother organization"? Uh..erhm...eh...huh?

[ftumch]

Would be better with a David Attenborough voice-over:

https://twitter.com/WorldOfSporf/status/861109205490683905

[RTW]

I think microdosing is the wrong word. A normal amount of LSD is already in micrograms. So, maybe ... nanodosing, picodosing, femtodosing, etc.

[David]

Journalism.

Via Ace.

[Runcie Balspune]

It's been years since I regularly travelled on The Tube, looking at the Deeper Underground video made me realise how clean and bright it is now days, I bet even the rats wear ties.

[David]

looking at the Deeper Underground video made me realise how clean and bright it is now

I fear you, and the video, may be overselling its charm.

[Trevor]

...I bet even the rats wear ties.

Well, the mice certainly don't.

[PiperPaul]

"I regularly travelled on The Tube"

I'm never going to do that because I saw An American Werewolf in London.

[Hal]

I bet even the rats wear ties.

Oh, so that explains Westminster finally catching up with everyone else . . . .

[champ]

"Now I'm wondering if women can get boners."

They can if they are male-to-female transgerdered who didn't get snipped...

[Pogonip]

I vote we outlaw all transgender "news" stories on grounds they're boring, not to mention, confusing. Often I honestly can't figure out which sex the subject is pretending to be.

[J.M. Heinrichs]

The background to "Spiders on Drugs".
https://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/10/WoodSpider/

Cheers